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Usually I wouldn't search TIME Magazine for good scientific articles, but an issue from a few weeks ago has an entire section called "The Brain: A User's Guide." All of the articles were fascinating and in very easy-to-understand language, but one that stood out to me was entitled "How the Brain Rewires Itself." The author described an experiment done by neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone where he first took a group of subjects and had them practice the same piano excercise for five days. Then he took TMS tests (transcranial-magnetic-stimulation test) which showed the function of neurons being tested. In this case, it demonstrated that the part of the motor cortex that was in charge of dealing with these piano-playing finger movements had taken over surrounding area in the five days of practicing.

But the most interesting part of this experiment was in the second group he tested. In this test, instead of actually practicing PLAYING the paino, he has his subjects THINK about playing the piano for the same amount of time as the first group for five days. They were to visualize moving their fingers in the same way the first group would have, just without real movement. When he did the TMS test on these people. the results were surprising: the part of the motor-complex that controlled the finger movements had once again expanded and taken over adjoining areas of the brain.

In class the other day we talked about whether or not just htinking could actually change the structure of the brain (aside from consolidating memories, etc). This is proof that indeed, it can. In my opinion its a fascinating, but somewhat terrifying thought. What if you unconscoiusly are thinking of something enough that it changes the structure of your brain without your knowing? Is it possible for unconscoius thoughts, like dreams for example, to do this as well? If so than our minds and behavior could change without our even knowing it. It would seem that we have much less control that we may have thought we did. Its seems in this article, that Emily Dickinson is indeed right: we are a product of the brain as opposed to the other way around.